Contact your legislator today!
~ ADVOCACY ALERT ~
Public Health Begins with Breastfeeding
Members Urged to Contact Senators, Congresspersons and Ask Them to Support Two Bills to Help Keep our Nation ‘Healthy From the Start’
An important way to celebrate National Public Health Week is to pick up the phone and call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Ask for your member of Congress and senators to co-sponsor two important pieces of federal legislation: The FAMILY Act and Supporting Working Moms Act. It only takes five minutes.
These two bills in Congress would provide critical support for women and families. The Family and Medical Insurance Act (FAMILY Act) (HR 1851, S 881) would create a national family and medical leave insurance program so that new parents could take up to 12 weeks of leave at reduced pay to care for their infants. The Supporting Working Moms Act (SWMA) (HR 1941, S 934) would require employers to provide salaried women with unpaid break time and a private space to express milk at work. (These provisions are already required for hourly wage workers.)
Consider advocating for these two important pieces of legislation to help our nation’s families and communities “Be Healthy From the Start.” If we are serious about recognizing breastfeeding as a public health issue, we cannot limit our efforts to just educating individual women. We need to strengthen societal and systems support. Breastfeeding women planning to return to work are often challenged and discouraged by a lack of paid maternity leave and other unsupportive policies at their workplaces. Let’s see if we can help them out!